U.S. patent number 7,127,049 [Application Number 10/298,238] was granted by the patent office on 2006-10-24 for system and method for enhancing the activation of dsl service.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Ciena Corporation. Invention is credited to Michael Gazier, Dhananjay Godse.
United States Patent |
7,127,049 |
Godse , et al. |
October 24, 2006 |
System and method for enhancing the activation of DSL service
Abstract
A system enhances automation of activating network service
between a customer modem and a central office modem over a digital
subscriber line (DSL) link. The central office modem couples the
customer modem to a network for providing the network service. The
system comprises a polling system coupled with the central office
modems. The polling system polls inactive central office modems in
order to detect the presence of an associated customer modem. A
discovery application is coupled with the polling system and the
central office modems for selectively enabling ones of the central
office modems in accordance with a result of the polling system. If
the polling system detects the presence of the customer modem, the
associated central office modem is enabled for providing network
service to a customer.
Inventors: |
Godse; Dhananjay (Kanata,
CA), Gazier; Michael (Nepean, CA) |
Assignee: |
Ciena Corporation (Linthicum,
MD)
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Family
ID: |
4170491 |
Appl.
No.: |
10/298,238 |
Filed: |
November 14, 2002 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20030131107 A1 |
Jul 10, 2003 |
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Foreign Application Priority Data
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Nov 14, 2001 [CA] |
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2361971 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
379/93.28;
379/90.01; 379/93.29; 375/222 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L
12/2856 (20130101); H04L 12/2889 (20130101); H04Q
11/04 (20130101); H04Q 2213/13034 (20130101); H04Q
2213/13092 (20130101); H04Q 2213/13109 (20130101); H04Q
2213/13175 (20130101); H04Q 2213/13199 (20130101); H04Q
2213/13204 (20130101); H04Q 2213/1329 (20130101); H04Q
2213/13367 (20130101); H04Q 2213/13389 (20130101); H04Q
2213/13399 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04M
11/00 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;379/93.28,93.29,90.01,93.07,93.14,9.02,9.03 ;370/254,469
;709/222,250 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Other References
Auto-Configuration for the Connection Between the DSL Broadband
Network Termination (B-NT) and the Network using ATM; DSL Forum
Technical Report, TR-037 (Mar. 2001); pp. 1-15. cited by
other.
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Primary Examiner: Ramakrishnaiah; Melur
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Merek, Blackmon & Voorhees,
LLC
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for activating network service between a customer modem
and a central office modem coupled via a digital subscriber line
(DSL) link, said central office modem for coupling said customer
modem to a network for providing said network service, said method
comprising the steps of: polling a plurality of central office
modems for detecting one or more associated customer modems;
enabling one or more of said plurality of central office modems in
accordance with said one or more associated customer modems that
have been detected; providing a network service connection to said
one or more associated customer modems that have been detected;
receiving initial customer data at a service portal after detection
of said one or more associated customer modems; and, receiving
quality of service information and Internet Service Provider (ISP)
information after said detection of said one or more associated
customer modems.
2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein a customer connects to
said network by coupling said customer modem, which is connected to
a computing device of said customer, to said DSL link.
3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein said customer modem
connects with said central office modem by running an
auto-discovery on said link.
4. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein said customer modem
connects with said central office modem by configuring said
customer modem using said computing device.
5. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein said customer modem
connects with said central office modem by using Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol.
6. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein said step of providing
said network service connection further comprises the step of:
providing said customer with a service web page for selecting
details of said network service connection.
7. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein said details include one
or more of a service provider, a connection speed, and a quality of
service.
8. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein if an error occurs, an
error message is sent to said customer for identifying said error,
thereby reducing a need for loop qualification.
9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein upon receiving said
error, said customer is provided with contact information for
informing a service provider of said error.
10. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein if an error occurs, an
error message is sent to a service provider for identifying said
error, thereby reducing a need for loop qualification.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein after an order associated with a
new customer is qualified, the customer is reconnected to the
requested ISP at the specified quality of service.
12. A method of claim 1, wherein said service portal requests
information from an Element Management System (EMS).
13. A method claim 1, wherein said service portal accesses a
service web page.
14. A system for automation of initially activating network service
between a customer modem and a central office modem coupled via a
digital subscriber line (DSL) link, said central office modem for
coupling said customer modem to a network for providing said
network service, said system comprising: a polling system, coupled
with a plurality of central office modems, for polling inactive
ones of said plurality of central office modems for detecting a
presence of an associated customer modem; a discovery application,
coupled with said polling system and said plurality of central
office modems, for selectively enabling ones of said plurality of
said central office modems in accordance with a result of said
polling system, wherein if said polling system detects said
presence of said associated customer modem, an associated central
office modem is enabled for providing network service to a
customer; a service portal for receiving initial customer
identification data in response to detection of said associated
customer modem; and, wherein said service portal receives quality
of service information and ISP information after said detection of
said one or more associated customer modems.
15. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said polling systems
polls said inactive ones of said plurality of central office modems
at predetermined intervals.
16. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said polling system
polls said inactive ones of said plurality of central office modems
continuously.
17. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said polling system
polls said inactive ones of said plurality of central office modems
in response to a command from a system administrator.
18. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said polling system
polls said inactive ones of said plurality of central office modems
by enabling said plurality of central office modems and attempting
to train said plurality of central office modems with said
associated customer modem, wherein said presence of said associated
customer modem is detected if the training is successful.
19. A system as defined in claim 18, wherein if said presence of
said associated customer modem is detected, said associated central
office modem remains enabled, otherwise said associated central
office modem is disabled.
20. A system as defined in claim 14, further including: a web page
server for providing said customer with a service web page, said
service web page for allowing said customer to select properties of
said network service for self-enabling said network service.
21. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein said properties
include one or more of a network service provider property, a
connection rate property, a fixed or floating IP address property,
and a payment scheme property.
22. A system as defined in claim 21, wherein said web page server
notifies said customer of difficulties in fulfilling said
properties of said network service that have been selected.
23. A system as defined in claim 22, further including: a service
portal for providing billing information about said customer, said
service portal having a pre-provisioned connection path with said
associated customer modem.
24. A system as defined as in claim 23, wherein said service portal
uses an identifier assigned to said pre-provisioned connection for
identifying said customer.
25. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein said service web page
is accessible via the Internet for allowing said customer to modify
said properties after said network service is enabled.
26. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein said web page server
provides said customer with an error message if an error is
detected on said DSL link.
27. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said customer is
provided with contact information for contacting a service provider
if an error is detected on said DSL link.
28. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein a service provider is
provided with error information if an error is detected on said DSL
link.
29. The system of claim 14, wherein after an order associated with
a new customer is qualified, the customer is reconnected to the
requested ISP at the specified quality of service.
30. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said service portal
requests information from an Element Management System (EMS).
31. A system as defined in claim 14, wherein said service portal
accesses a service web page.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED
RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A "SEQUENCE LISTING," A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM
LISTING APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISK.
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL) technology, and specifically to a system and method for
reducing manual requirements for activating such technology.
Remote access and retrieval of data is becoming increasingly
popular in data communication. The proliferation of the Internet
has provided a vast network of information that is available to the
general public. As the Internet grows and technology advances, this
information is becoming increasingly voluminous and the details are
become increasingly intricate. What used to be mainly text
information has grown to include still and moving images as well as
sound. The increase in volume of information to be transferred has
presented a need for a high-speed Internet connection, since
traditional telephone modems communicate at speeds too slow for
efficient communication.
One proposal for high-speed communication is the introduction of
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. One of the most
attractive features of DSL is that it is implemented using an
infrastructure that already exists. DSL shares copper twisted pair
lines typically used for telephone communication. However, only a
small portion (0 to 4 kHz) of the available bandwidth of the
twisted pair line is used for Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).
DSL takes advantage of the available frequency spectrum from 4 kHz
to approximately 1.1 MHz for transmitting data.
A DSL modem is a device that modulates and demodulates signals
across a DSL physical interface. An ATU-R modem is located at a
customer's site and an ATU-C modem is located in a central office
(CO) or remote terminal (RT) of a loop provider. When the modems
initialize at power-up, they attempt to train and synchronize their
signals with each other.
The ATU-C is administratively enabled or disabled as a part of
managing a network element in which it resides. The ATU-C is
administratively enabled if a DSL subscriber has requested service
on the line connected to that ATU-C. If there is no DSL subscriber
on that link, then the ATU-C is disabled.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical DSL data service connection to the
Internet is illustrated generally by numeral 100. A plurality of
ATU-Rs 102 are coupled to associated ATU-Cs 104 via twisted pairs
106. The ATU-Cs 104 are located in a remote terminal or CO 110 and
are coupled to an access network 108. The access network 108
couples the ATU-Cs 104 to the Internet 112 via a gateway 109. An
element management system (EMS) 114 is coupled between an
operations support system (OSS) 116 and the access network 108.
While the following implementation specifically describes an
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) access network, it will be
apparent to a person skilled in the art that the access network
could be other networks such as Synchronous Optical Network
(SONET), Internet Protocol (IP), and the like. In order for a
customer to request DSL service on a particular line, the following
procedure occurs. The OSS 116, which is partially manually operated
and partially computerized, determines whether service is available
for the line and optionally determines whether the twisted pair has
availability for the required DSL bandwidth. Using the EMS 114, the
ATU-C 104 is provisioned with DSL service data and the ATU-C 104 is
administratively enabled. Using the EMS 114 and/or a network
management system (NMS), a circuit (such as an ATM permanent
virtual circuit (PVC)) is provisioned from the ATU-C 104 through
the ATM access network 108 to the Internet 112 via the gateway 109,
such as a subscriber management system (SMS). A PVC is a
software-defined logical connection/path in a network. This path is
illustrated in FIG. 1 by dotted lines. For example, the PVC
connects the customer to the customer's Internet Service Provider's
point of presence on the Internet.
The customer installs the ATU-R 102 and connects an Internet
Protocol (IP) device such as a personal computer (PC), Voice over
ATM integrated access device (IAD), or Voice over IP (VoIP) IAD.
The ATU-R 102 powers up and attempts to train with the ATU-C 104.
After a successful training, the ATU-R 102 typically uses ATM
configurations such as virtual circuit identifiers (VCIs) and their
associated traffic characteristic, layer 2+ configurations such as
a Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) related
configuration, or such as a PPPoE user id (e.g., User@isp.com) and
password, and may also require layer 3 configuration data. (The
"layers" refer to the 7-layer Open Source Initiative [OSI] model.)
The customer can then start IP traffic. For example, a World Wide
Web (WWW) homepage can be downloaded using hypertext transfer
protocol (HTTP)/Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet
Protocol (IP). That is, the customer is connected to the
Internet.
In DSL networks as described above, the process for configuring DSL
service is very laborious and time-consuming. Specifically, some of
the steps involved may include order entry, loop qualification,
provisioning DSL interfaces, provisioning ATM virtual circuits to
the voice or data network, provisioning Point-to-Point Protocol
(PPP) user id's, provisioning internal network tunnels, and the
like. Each of these steps requires manual action at the EMS 114,
NMS or OSS 116, and takes time. This translates into high labor
costs to activate service, and a high opportunity cost of slow
service activation. Furthermore, the carrier--not the
customer--controls all of the main steps.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that provides
enhanced activation of DSL subscriber lines. It is an object of the
present invention to obviate or mitigate at least some of the
above-mentioned disadvantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is
provided a system for enhancing automation of activating a network
service between a customer modem and a central office modem. The
central office modem couples the customer modem to a network for
providing the network service. The system includes a polling system
coupled with the central office modems. The polling system polls
inactive central office modems in order to detect the presence of
an associated customer modem. A discovery application is coupled
with the polling system and the central office modems for
selectively enabling ones of a plurality of the central office
modems in accordance with a result of the polling system. If the
polling system detects the presence of the customer modem, the
associated central office modem is enabled for providing network
service to a customer.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, there is
provided a web page server for providing the customer with a
service web page. The service web page allows the customer to
select properties of the network service for self-enabling the
network service.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of
example only with reference to the following drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a typical DSL data connection
system (prior art);
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a DSL data connection system in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process steps performed in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
For convenience, like numerals in the description refer to like
structures in the drawings. Referring to FIG. 2, a DSL data service
connection to the Internet in accordance with an embodiment of the
invention is illustrated generally by numeral 200. A plurality of
ATU-Rs 102 are coupled to associated ATU-Cs 104 via twisted pairs
106. The ATU-Cs 104 are located in a remote terminal 110 and
coupled to an access network 108. The access network 108
selectively couples the ATU-Cs 104 to the Internet 112. An element
management system (EMS) 202 is coupled between an operations
support system (OSS) 204 and the access network 108. The OSS 204
further comprises a service portal 206. The EMS 202 enables network
managers to provision, manage, and monitor nodes within the access
network 108.
In the present embodiment, most customer loops are able to run
Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) without manual intervention on the physical
loop, or twisted pair 106. This can be achieved by pre-installing
DSL for every line by adding a POTS-splitter and a digital
subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) for every line.
Optionally, an integrated ATU-C POTS/DSL line card may be used that
provides POTS and DSL on every line. Such a line card eliminates
the need for rewiring between POTS splitters, DSLAMs, and digital
loop carriers (DLCs), which are typically required for ensuring
that DSL is available at every ATU-C line. If the loop can be
proven to work without intervention from the OSS 204, or if the
failure rate is low enough, the need for loop qualification can be
reduced or eliminated. This is true because loops are assumed to be
operational until a failure is reported, as will be described in
detail below.
A network operator installs the remote terminal 110 and
pre-configures ADSL service data for each ATU-C 104. However, each
ATU-C 104 is disabled, which provides lower power consumption than
if each ATU-C 104 is enabled. An ATM PVC 208 is provided from each
ATU-C 104 to a service portal 206 in the OSS 204 via the access
network 108. The PVCs 208 are illustrated in FIG. 2 by dotted
lines.
The service portal 206 is a part of the OSS 204 and, thus, is aware
of which ATU-C 104 maps to which ATM VCI (or other connection
identifier) as well as customer identification data of the line
that is stored on the OSS 204. The customer identification data
includes information for billing the client, which typically
includes the customer's telephone number, address, and the like.
The service portal 206 can also request other data from the EMS 202
for a particular ATU-C 104. The other data includes the type of
service available to the customer and the communication rate
actually trained on the DSL line. Typically, the communication rate
varies from approximately 512 kbps to approximately 6 Mbps.
A discovery application runs on the EMS 202 and polls each
administratively-disabled DSL line for an ATU-R 102 presence. The
polling is achieved by automatically enabling each of the disabled
ATU-Cs 104, which causes them to attempt to retrain. In the present
embodiment, each of the disabled DSL lines is polled serially. In
an alternate embodiment, the disabled DSL lines may be polled in
parallel. In yet an alternate embodiment, the disabled DSL lines
may be polled as a combination of parallel and serial polling. That
is, for example, five lines can be polled at a time. For the
present embodiment, serial polling was selected to reduce the load
of polling on a Central Processor Unit (CPU) of the EMS 202.
Further, since each enabled DSL line consumes power, less power is
dissipated for serial polling than for parallel polling. Lastly,
while parallel polling will typically reduce the time required to
detect the enabling of a previously-disabled DSL line, the time
required by serial polling is sufficient for most cases. For
example, using serial polling, a 15-minute delay (and possibly even
less) can be reasonably attained. Thus, the customer is prompted to
plug-in the ATU-R 102 and told that it will be enabled within 15
minutes.
If the ATU-C 104 retrains, then the retraining bandwidth is known
after approximately 15 seconds, which implies that a DSL modem is
present at the customer premises. If a DSL line driver at the ATU-C
104 does not receive a response from the ATU-R 102, it implies that
no ATU-R 102 is present at the customer premises. As a result, the
DSL line driver sends a message to the EMS 202 that service to that
particular DSL line is not available. As an example of such a
signal, the line driver may send a "bandwidth=0" response to the
EMS 202, although the exact signal or even the existence of such a
message is implementation-specific. The discovery application
automatically disables the ATU-C 104 for such a line. If an ATU-R
102 is present at the customer premises and plugged in, the ATU-C
104 will be able to establish communication with the ATU-R 102,
thus "discovering" its presence. The bandwidth and other
characteristics of the line are transmitted to the EMS 202, and the
ATU-C 104 remains enabled.
As previously mentioned, a reasonable polling frequency can be
determined by a network operator, as will be appreciated by a
person skilled in the art. For the purposes of the present
embodiment, the polling frequency ranges from once every 15 minutes
to once every hour or two. The polling frequency is configurable
and can be changed by the network operator. Generally, polling more
often than once every 10 minutes exerts a high processing and
bandwidth cost on the element management system EMS 202. Polling
less often than once every 4 days does not yield a service
activation speed gain as compared to the existing manual
processes.
When the customer wants ADSL service, the following procedure is
followed. The customer installs the ATU-R 102, powers it up, and
connects it to a personal computer (PC) or other computing device.
The EMS polling application eventually turns on the ATU-C 104 in
accordance with the predetermined polling frequency and trains the
line. The ATU-R 102 runs an auto-discovery on the line.
Auto-discovery is specified in DSL Forum WT-048, Revision 4,
January 2001, and is herein incorporated by reference. (This
document may also be referred to as DSL Technical Forum Technical
Report TR-037, Auto-Configuration for the Connection Between the
DSL Broadband Network Termination [B-NT] and the Network using ATM,
March 2001.) Auto-discovery enables automatic configuration between
the ATU-R 102 and exchange equipment. If, however, the
auto-discovery feature is not available, then the customer
configures the ATU-R 102 from the PC. Yet an alternate possibility
allows the customer's PC to be configured using mechanisms such as
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) until the customer
registers with a service provider. DHCP allows the customer to
connect the network without a pre-assigned Internet Protocol (IP)
address. Thus, when the customer connects to the network, a
temporary IP address is assigned by the service provider, possibly
through provisioning of the DSLAM.
Once the ATU-R 102 is configured, the customer downloads a service
web page from the service portal 206. Alternately, the service web
page could be located at the remote terminal 110. The service web
page presents the customer with a DSL service order form. The
service order form provides subscription choices such as grade and
quality of service, Internet service provider, and the like. Once
the order is entered, the parameters are verified. The service
portal obtains the customer identifier data (such as billing
information, which might be verified with an online credit checking
service) and line data from the OSS 204 for the incoming ATM VCI. A
quality of service requested by the customer is compared against
the trained bandwidth on the line, which is available by querying
the ATM connection admission control (CAC) either "on-node" at the
remote terminal 110, or "off-node" at the EMS 202. The requested
ISP can be reached, since the service portal 206 has that ISP
configured as one of the choices for the specific line, in
accordance with the telephone number.
After the order is qualified, the OSS 204 manually or automatically
reconnects the customer to the requested ISP at the specified
quality of service. This may require disconnecting the customer and
forcing a new session (over PPPoE for example) or even asking the
customer to reboot their PC. Some versions of Microsoft
Windows.RTM. require this step in order to retrieve a new IP
address from the selected ISP. At this point, the DSL customer can
"surf" the Internet.
Generally, internal details such as domain names and IP addresses
are hidden from the subscriber. Furthermore, in some cases, it may
be necessary for the subscriber to load a software package to the
Internet-connected device. As previously discussed, this depends on
the particular device and operating system that the subscriber is
using. These internal details may be hidden from the customer by
the ATU-C 104 performing proxy operations on behalf of the
customer. Specific examples of proxy operations are the subject of
a co-pending Canadian application and therefore need not be
described in detail.
The VC and the IP address assigned to the customer remain active
until the connection is terminated. Typical events that result in
the termination of a connection include the customer turning off
the ATU-R 102 (PC or modem), the service provider rebooting the
DSLAM, the failure of the network connection, and the like. Once
the connection is terminated, the customer can reconnect by
rebuilding the connection. Generally, however, the steps of
auto-sensing and configuring the customer modem are bypassed, since
the service provider already knows the customer is present. Thus,
items such as PVC are maintained and the ATU-C 104 is kept in
"enabled" mode. Items such as PPPoE session establishment and the
DHCP, for example, may need to be rerun. The choice of service
provider remains consistent, even through multiple disconnects.
However, the customer may alter or add to the ISP selection by
surfing back to the service web page, via the Internet.
Physically, the customer is connected to the ISP as follows. In
some cases, a PVC is added, coupling the customer with the ISP via
the remote terminal and ATM network. Alternately, if the system
includes a subscriber management system (SMS), the SMS aggregates
all the customers from multiple remote terminals onto a single
Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) tunnel. The L2TP tunnel
communicates with an access network or core network via one VC. The
network is coupled with each ISP via an associated VC. Thus, in
this example a PVC need only be added to couple the customer with
the SMS. Furthermore, if each customer has a pre-configured PVC to
the SMS, then no new PVC needs to be configured. All that is
required is to inform the SMS which new customer has been added,
and to which ISP the customer should be connected.
One optional auto-configuring method is to have the PVCs configured
in accordance with addendum AF-NM-0122.000 and to the ATM UNI 4.0
standard. The addendum describes how the ATU-R 102 is automatically
configured with available PVCs once it powers up. As part of the
standard, the ATU-R 102 queries the ATU-C 104, which downloads the
list of PVCs to the ATU-R 102. The list is pre-configured by the
service provider and communicated to the ATU-C 104 via the EMS 202.
Typically, the default VC is VC=32, VP=0, where VP is a virtual
path.
If the order cannot be qualified because of ADSL bandwidth or ATM
CAC problems, then manual actions to fix the line can be taken, for
example, by removing bridge taps. Alternately, the network could be
re-engineered, for example, by providing more backhaul capacity.
Yet alternately, a reduced level of service can be provided at
least as a temporary measure.
The benefit of the system described above is that partial loop
qualification is optional and, therefore, does not have to be
performed manually if the customer can connect to the service
portal. That is, the customer can simply purchase a modem from a
retailer and plug it in to a PC. Within the waiting time previously
described, typically a 15 minute maximum, the customer will be able
to log on to the service web site and select the Internet service
desired. This is achieved without requiring the customer to
telephone a service provider and pre-arrange the connection.
In the event of a system failure, such as an ATM CAC failure or a
loop qualification error, if loop qualification is performed, the
customer is informed of the error. In the rare case that the
bandwidth requested by the customer is not available, a manual work
order, as previously described, can be triggered. However, even a
low bandwidth rate is almost always sufficient for the customer to
receive a service error web page from the portal explaining the
failure. The service error web page further provides the customer
with tools for attempting to remedy the situation, including a
complaint web page for logging a complaint with the ISP, telephone
contact information for the ISP, and the like. Thus, once a failure
occurs, the service provider is informed explicitly of the failure.
Once the problem is known, technicians can be dispatched to resolve
it. Generally, this error reporting scheme results in a less
expensive line setup cost for the service provider, as the need for
loop qualification can be reduced and the problems are known rather
than having to be anticipated. Additionally, connection
qualification is performed automatically if the level of service
requested is exceeded by the trained ADSL bandwidth or the
available and allowed ATM capacity.
In the embodiment described above, the EMS 202 performs the polling
of the ATU-Cs 104 for determining if the customer has connected an
ATU-R 102. In an alternate embodiment, however, rather than the EMS
202 polling the ATU-Cs 104, the polling is managed by the remote
terminal 110. Such a system can reduce the processing and bandwidth
costs associated with polling as described in the previous
embodiment, since it is only necessary for the remote terminal 110
to inform the EMS 202 of newly discovered lines. Thus, the
frequency of the ATU-C 104 polling may be increased to further
reduce the maximum activation time for the customer.
In the embodiments described above, polling of the ATU-Cs 104 is
performed automatically, having a relatively fixed frequency. For
example, the inactive ATU-Cs 104 are polled every 15 minutes.
Therefore, as long as the inactive ATU-Cs 104 can all be polled
within 15 minutes, the customer is assured of a 15 minute latency
(approximately) from modem connection to activation. Alternately,
the inactive ATU-Cs 104 are polled continuously. Thus, the
frequency with which the ATU-Cs 104 are polled increases as the
number of inactive ATU-Cs 104 decreases and vice versa. If all
ATU-Cs 104 can be polled within 15 minutes, the customer is assured
a maximum 15 minute latency from modem connection to activation,
but may often be less.
In yet an alternate embodiment, rather than the automatic polling
described above, the system uses manual polling. Manual polling
requires a system operator to initiate the polling. Therefore, the
ATU-Cs 104 are only polled when initiated by the system
operator.
In yet an alternate embodiment, gateway "DSL routers" are used at
the customer premises. This does not change the fundamental concept
described above, although the specific order and partitioning of
the functionality may change, as will be appreciated by a person
skilled in the art. These difference include, for example,
configuring a router, as opposed to configuring a PC, and the use
of Network Address Translation (NAT) for IP address translation
between a network address and customer premises IP addresses.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process steps described above for
a DSL activation process 300. In step 302, the ATU-Cs 104 are
polled to detect the ATU-Rs 102. In step 304, when an ATU-R 102 is
detected, its corresponding ATU-C 104 is enabled. In step 306, a
network service connection is provided to the detected ATU-R 102.
In step 308, the customer is provided with a service web page for
selecting details of the network service connection.
While the above description refers to ADSL, a person skilled in the
art will appreciate that the invention can be applied to other
forms of DSL technology. Also, while the connection between the
ATU-C 104 and the service portal are describe as ATM PVCs, they
could also be based on another layer 2 or 3 protocol combination
such as, for example, a combination of ATM, IP, Point-to-Point
Protocol (PPP), variations of Ethernet including for example over
VDSL, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). Accordingly,
certain specific embodiments and various modifications thereof will
be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention as outlined in the claims
appended hereto.
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